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[psyguy]

Hi there.

I've been working for a little while on a game that uses only ASCII characters.  (Well, the menu has a few icon graphics, technically.)  I have times where I don't get a lot done on it, but recently I've been making some pretty good progress on it.

Here is a screenshot of what the game looks like:  http://www.psyguygames.com/images/ASCII_Project/ascii31.png

I thought I would share the new demo I put together with anyone who would like to try it.  I have a Windows version and a source version (Python).  So, it should work on any platform.  If you use, say, linux, you need pygame and pyopengl to run it.  If you download the Windows version, you can just run it as it is. 

Windows version (5MB)
Source version (linux, mac, etc.) (2MB)

If you have any trouble running it, let me know.  (It'd probably be because I did something stupid like polling the "first" joystick on a computer that has no joysticks attached.  )

[AaronAardvark]

I get a blank screen and a window that I can't close unless I kill the python process.
Here's the output:
http://omanthatsgood.com/public/ascii_game_output.txt

[psyguy]

Hm, it looks like it's running out of memory on load, perhaps.  Do you have any optional programs open that you could close when you try to run it?

I do have a lot of object in the game, and I could probably do a better job of optimizing its memory management.  I'm hopeful that this won't prove an issue for most people, though.

Thanks for trying it and letting me know. 

[AaronAardvark]

I'm just running two xfce4-terminals and one instance each of firefox and thunderbird.

There's some additional output if I don't pipe the output to a text file:

'data/chandelier.txt' -> (15 x
{'A': False, 'C': False, 'B': False, 'E': False, 'D': False, 'G': False, 'F': False, 'H': False}
'data/fireplace.txt' -> (16 x 9)
{'A': False, 'C': False, 'B': False, 'E': False, 'D': False, 'G': False, 'F': False}
'data/bookshelf.txt' -> (10 x 16)
{'A': False, 'C': False, 'B': False, 'E': False, 'D': False, 'G': False, 'F': False, 'H': False}
'data/tombstone.txt' -> (10 x 10)
['main.py']
--Return--
> /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/PyOpenGL-3.0.0c1-py2.5.egg/OpenGL/arrays/arraydatatype.py(33)from_param()->None
-> pdb.set_trace()
(Pdb) Killed

[psyguy]

Oh!  Okay, it's definitely not a memory issue then.  It looks like you're running it on python 2.5; I had forgotten this, but I think pygame might only work on 2.4.  I think if you had a chance to run it in 2.4, it would surely run, as long as you have pygame and pyopengl installed.

[ChevyRay]

What is the game about even? The only thing you've even told us about it is that the graphics are all/mostly ascii. The screenshot looks pretty cool, though.

[psyguy]

Hi, ChevyRay.  I probably should have added a little more information at the beginning.    The game is primarily a platform adventure.  It has the occasional puzzle section, but the game definitely concentrates on platforming.

The main character is a monkey.  He's just trying to get through these strange lands without getting into too much trouble.  At the moment he doesn't have any offensive moves; he has to rely on his inherent monkey skills to stay out of trouble.  As the game progresses, I may look to add to his repertoire a little bit. 

In the screenshot, the monkey is climbing on a chain, holding on for dear life lest he fall into the scorching lava below him.  He'll have to time his next jump to avoid that dangerous fireball that has spouted from the small volcano.

I can't quite compare it to any one particular game, but it can't help but take influence from the old Mario games.  With all of the countless hours and hours I spent playing those games, it's kind of programmed into me by now, you know? 

[PsySal]

Aha, reached the end of Demo 2. Good job!

Here's what I like:

- Ascii art is great, and it really works for me. It's fun!
- Level atmospheres are nice
- Varied obstacles and tools.
- Riding ducks is awesome!
- The sign near the snowman, that's a trick right? Good trick, but a bit mean... we are s'possed to be able to trust signs, hmm?

Ideas I've got:

- I think the monkey should be half the size he is now. I know it's a core design descision you made but maybe think about it. If he was maybe 3x3 Ascii chars the game would feel much different.
- Likewise some of the enemies might do better to be smaller
- Health bar is OK, but I think a more traditional # of health pieces that degrade as you are hit, followed by a flash invincibility, might work better.
- A bit more monkey-specific things would be good, maybe he can throw coconuts?

Things I don't like:

- Jump physics feel very up-then-down. I think they need to have a bit of a X^2 curve, ala Mario or whatnot.
- Levels feel a little bit "finicky", i.e., the terrain gets in the way a bit too much. I would like if they could breathe a bit more, e.g., longer flat stretches as in traditional platformer. Generally, the levels could be longer but not neccesarily with more detail. Just a bit more repetition or sense of place!

Good job!

[psyguy]

Hey PsySal, glad you enjoyed the game. 

I did actually have a couple of sneaky signs in the game.  I have one by the first axe that is pretty mean too. 

I think you're right about the health bar / damage approach.  I admit that I kind of threw in the health bar as an afterthought for the demo.  The monkey definitely needs a short period of invincibility after getting hit.  I've looked into giving the monkey some kind of offensive weapon, but I haven't followed through with it yet.  I do think that giving him some kind of defense (like your coconut suggestion) would make things a little more fair sometimes. 

The problem I run into when addressing the size of the player / enemies is that ... I feel that I need a certain minimum number of characters to provide an adequate representation of, say, a monkey.  I suppose I could do a scale operation (shrink him by 50%); I don't know if the difference in letter sizes would look distracting or not.

I'll make sure to take a look at the jumping code.  People do seem to consider it a little "floaty" at the moment.

Thanks for all your suggestions, PsySal.  =)

[PsySal]

I'm looking forward to it! Keep at it... =)